Prelate apologizes for drunken driving charge

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, to be installed in October as archbishop of San Francisco, was arrested in San Diego early Aug. 26 for driving under the influence.

The archbishop, a San Diego native, had his mother in the car.

In an Aug. 27 statement issued from the Diocese of Oakland, which Cordileone has led for the past three years, the prelate apologized “for my error in judgment” and said he felt “shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself.”

According to the archbishop’s statement, he was driving his mother to her home after dinner at the home of some friends, “along with a priest friend visiting from outside the country.”

He admitted in his statement that he was found to be over California’s legal blood alcohol level, which is 0.08 per cent.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Cordileone spent the night in jail, and was released shortly before noon.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charge Oct. 9 – five days after his scheduled installation as San Francisco’s archbishop.